On August 20, the Notre Dame Shakespeare’s Young Company held their final performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on Main Quad. The Young Company has traveled around Michiana performing the famed play throughout the summer.

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The annual Opening Mass and picnic always mark the start of classes with students, staff and faculty joining together to celebrate the start of the Fall semester. In this photo, Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C. speaks with students on DeBartolo Quad.

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Abuzz does not adequately describe the whirlwind that is move-in weekend. As students begin to settle in for the start of the fall semester, the prepares its newest members to carry on its storied tradition.

For more photos of Move-In weekend 2012, visit the Multimedia Service’s photo gallery .

The recent rain may have helped return campus green but improvements to campus facilities are constantly improving sustainability. Ricci Band Rehearsal Hall recently installed more efficient lighting.

For more on the University’s sustainability strategies, click .

The Notre Dame Summer Band wraps up its season with an outdoor concert on the Irish Green.

The Summer Band is composed of Notre Dame faculty and students along with area high students and community members.

Although most students are away during the summer months, the Notre Dame campus has yet to slow down. Buildings across campus are undergoing upgrades and maintenance.

After another successful school year, staff came together to mark a job well done at the annual staff picnic.

The Main Building Christmas tree looking up towards the murals that decorate the Dome.

The Main Building Christmas Tree brings festive cheer to all as student continue to complete their final semester examinations.

Campus has seen its first legitimate snowfall of the season, just in time for study days.

Final examinations began Monday, December 11.

Fall, like the semester, is beginning to wind down as winter begins to set in at Notre Dame. A rare, cloudless sky greets students preparing for their upcoming exams.

Members of the football team stop to sing “Notre Dame, Our Mother” after defeating Maryland 45-21 at FedEx Field. For more photos from the game, click .

Although most Notre Dame students are back home during fall break, members of the Notre Dame drumline and trombone section embarked on a service trip to assist Catholic Charities in the rebuilding of Joplin, Mo.

Things are about to get a lot faster at Notre Dame as work begins on the installation of the new vertical accelerator. The new National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded 5 MV accelerator represents a major equipment upgrade for the University and is the first accelerator NSF has funded in nuclear physics in nearly a quarter century.

For more information on the vertical accelerator, click .

Participants Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, and Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas during their discussion titled, “The Conversation: Developing the 91��Ƶs Our Children Deserve” part of the 2011-12 Notre Dame Forum at the Leighton Concert Hall.

Participants Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, and Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas during their discussion titled, “The Conversation: Developing the 91��Ƶs Our Children Deserve” part of the 2011-12 Notre Dame Forum at the Leighton Concert Hall.

Photo by Barbara Johnston/University of Notre Dame

Actors Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez take questions after a screening of their film “The Way” in the Browning Cinema.

Photo by Matt Cashore.

Following the mass of remembrance for the Sept. 11 attack victims, members of the Notre Dame family gather at the Grotto for individual prayer.

Photo by Barbara Johnston.

Notre Dame Laboratory Instrumentation Giving Hope To Students (ND LIGHTS)—recently completed its first year of collecting and sending donated laboratory equipment to limited–resource schools across the country, mostly in the (ACE) program.

The equipment comes complete with instructions and materials for conducting high school classroom experiments. Each ACE teacher received individualized training during their summer on campus to prepare them to use the equipment. The program is a collaboration between the , the , and .

Faculty members donated some $275,000 worth of equipment that went to ACE schools and colleges. VWR, the global distributor of scientific supplies that is Notre Dame’s preferred vendor, has donated the materials. The company’s sales representative, Renee Wedel, and on–site coordinator, Dan Tuisaula, have offices in the Jordan Hall of Science and have been extremely helpful.

Michelle Joyce of the , who administers the program, says the support from VWR is incredible and makes the equipment immediately useful for teachers. She expects to expand the program to local high schools this year.

Marta Michalska, a senior studying in the , holds a child at an orphanage in Tanzania.

Michalska spent part of her summer working at a hospital in Tanzania through funding by the .

The 2011-12 academic year officially begins as Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Notre Dame president, concelebrates Opening Mass at the Purcell Pavilion. Photo by Matt Cashore.

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